Dorchester Times: The Truth Is Out There: Our Area's UFO Sightings

Saturday, September 2, 2023

The Truth Is Out There: Our Area's UFO Sightings

Lately, there has been a lot of talk in the news about UFOs.

This reminds us of the time when the Dorchester Times staff received an e-mail and photo from a reader ("Cathy") who lives a couple of miles outside of Dorchester.

At the time, Cathy told us just before capturing a photo with her cell phone, she "saw a very bright, reflective object in the afternoon sky" and that the object "was just floating in the same spot for about 60 seconds and then suddenly vanished.

Cathy told the Times she was "positive" she saw a UFO that was "not of this world."

Over the decades, Nebraska has its share of "out of this world" stories, perhaps because of its lack of artificial light pollution.

Among the most interesting stories is one that took place on Highway 6 near Ashland. According to a site called UFOevidence.com, it is one of the "best-documented close encounters" ever noted.

On Dec. 3, 1967, Ashland police officer Herbert Schirmer was on his routine late-night and early morning patrol. Around 2:30 a.m., he noticed a group of lights near the ground and thought he could make out a semi-trailer off the road.

When Schirmer approached to investigate, he watch the object take off and disappear in the night sky. When he returned to the police station at 3 a.m., he wrote in his log: "Saw a flying saucer at the junction of Highways 6 and 63. Believe it or not!"

According to the account, Schirmer went home that morning with a splitting headache and an inexplicable red welt on the side of his neck. Though only 22 years old at the time, Schirmer was so respected in Ashland that he was named chief of police a short time later. Two months later, he resigned from the force. He said he couldn't get the UFO encounter out of his mind.

Investigators learned of Schirmer and found that 20 minutes seemed to be unaccounted for in his log of Dec. 3, 1967.

After Schirmer agreed to undergo hypnotic regression to see if he could remember more details of the incident, Schirmer told investigators that several "humanoid beings" got out and approached him and he was taken aboard the craft.

Schirmer described the beings as 4.5' to 5' tall, with heads somewhat narrower and longer than an average human. He was told these beings had been watching the human race for a very long time and were engaged in what he called a "breeding analysis program."

Schirmer was ridiculed by some of the townspeople, his car was dynamited, and his wife left him. You can hear audio accounts of his "abduction" in Schirmer's own words by visiting this YouTube site.

The truth is out there.

2 comments:

AnonymousJuly 8, 2015 at 10:37 PM
Nanu nanu. Take me to your leader, and let me ask him why you don't have more concrete streets.
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AnonymousMay 15, 2021 at 6:33 PM
Read Genesis 6. They were here then and they are coming back. Fallen angels.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."